http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRkRCT_J95g
kyle, marisha, brittany, katie, mike
Monday, April 19, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Oops, I need one more :/
So here I am thinking I'm doing so well. I have my blogs done by Tuesday. I had a clever title for it, I felt it was a good wrap up, and then silly me, I didn't read the syllabus close enough to see that all blogs must be at least 250 words long. Oops. Now I need another one. Crap, I'm scrambling trying to come up with another topic an my mind is blank. Then I pull my notebook out of my bag and out pops the Baghdad Burning blogs and eureka I have it.
When we read the Baghdad Burning blogs in class I was so struck by the words and the stories they told. I enjoyed our in class discussion. I think a variety of valid points were made. We talked primarily about the validity of the blogs as a news source. And even though I understand other people's points of view I think what is still the most important part of the blogs to me is their message and that it is getting out there. The novelty of a woman (or a woman's point of view) being told in the middle of a major conflict in an area of the world where supposedly women are oppressed was so awesome to me.
Then I went to my favorite website, Amazon (yikes, I know right?), to see if the book forms of the blogs were on there and one of my favorite Amazon features 'Other customers also bought' popped up a bunch of books about womens' perspectives of major conflicts. Now some of them were fiction but many were not. And this got me to thinking about how we aren't really made aware of these books. We know about the latest Nora Roberts and Dan Brown books but not about these stories of real life struggles by women. And I wonder why? I know that most people (myself included) who read for pleasure want to escape to a less complicated world but it seems to me that the real life struggles should be more emphasize in curriculums and by the media. Basically this all boils down to concerns about the superficiality of our society. (No judgment here, I can be as superficial as the next, just wonderings.)
Okay, I really think this is my last one.
Peace
When we read the Baghdad Burning blogs in class I was so struck by the words and the stories they told. I enjoyed our in class discussion. I think a variety of valid points were made. We talked primarily about the validity of the blogs as a news source. And even though I understand other people's points of view I think what is still the most important part of the blogs to me is their message and that it is getting out there. The novelty of a woman (or a woman's point of view) being told in the middle of a major conflict in an area of the world where supposedly women are oppressed was so awesome to me.
Then I went to my favorite website, Amazon (yikes, I know right?), to see if the book forms of the blogs were on there and one of my favorite Amazon features 'Other customers also bought' popped up a bunch of books about womens' perspectives of major conflicts. Now some of them were fiction but many were not. And this got me to thinking about how we aren't really made aware of these books. We know about the latest Nora Roberts and Dan Brown books but not about these stories of real life struggles by women. And I wonder why? I know that most people (myself included) who read for pleasure want to escape to a less complicated world but it seems to me that the real life struggles should be more emphasize in curriculums and by the media. Basically this all boils down to concerns about the superficiality of our society. (No judgment here, I can be as superficial as the next, just wonderings.)
Okay, I really think this is my last one.
Peace
Corporate Control
One thing that we discussed in class that has really changed the way I consume media is the topic of corporate control. The same eight(ish) companies own just about everything we hear, see, and read, whether on the radio, television, newspapers, or on the Internet. We've discussed this topic in some of my telecommunications classes as well, and to be completely honest it disheartens me a bit. The passing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave these corporations the power to monopolize the media. The mad dash for control left the media in an oligopoly with only a handful of companies owning the outlets. What we as the general public is the select hegemonic viewpoints being blasted at us from all around. Creativity is replaced with capitalism. Programs aren't put on air based on what their ideals are, rather programs are put on because they will make money. No one cares about anything unless they can suck a profit out of it.
It saddens me that as a whole we're okay with this. When i bring up media ownership around my family or some of my peers I'm left with blank stares. Whether they aren't understanding the severity of what I'm saying, they don't understand, of if they just don't care, I'm not quite sure.
The fact that my scriptwriting and my creative writing professors are trying to train me to write what is popular and what is successful rather than just working on teaching me how to create sickens me as well. People talk about how they hate government control so much, but the media has become it's own government, and the only way to be a part of it's dictatorship is to buy yourself in.
It saddens me that as a whole we're okay with this. When i bring up media ownership around my family or some of my peers I'm left with blank stares. Whether they aren't understanding the severity of what I'm saying, they don't understand, of if they just don't care, I'm not quite sure.
The fact that my scriptwriting and my creative writing professors are trying to train me to write what is popular and what is successful rather than just working on teaching me how to create sickens me as well. People talk about how they hate government control so much, but the media has become it's own government, and the only way to be a part of it's dictatorship is to buy yourself in.
South Park
We all know and love the popular cartoon series on Comedy Central, South Park. I feel as though South Park is a genius program, filled with perfect examples of things that we have talked about in our Pop Culture class. By taking the time each season to make each episode one-by-one between episodes, they are able to keep up-to-date on various facets of pop culture, and then make it comical. A couple of seasons ago, South Park was able to make an episode about several youtube sensations, and have them interact with the main characters of the show. Movie stars, television actors, and even Facebook have all been mocked in the series. I think that the show is important because they are able to make fun of normal situations that we deal with everyday. Also, the creators make the show so ironic, that it's easy to tell what they are making fun of, and exactly why they are making fun of it. I know that I have been known to watch and episode, and then look up a news report on what happened in real life, and am able to compare the two and understand why and how South Park mocks them.
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